Part Five – Every Change is a Second Chance:
Change does occur by chance, having a readiness for it, on the other hand, requires an eagerness to be fit for the job. Hitting a search engine with the phrase “Theory of Change,” you get something like the mosaic below. My favorite is the Theory of Change website from ActKnowledge and their offer of certification and use of their TOCO software.
Feedback is a response, reaction or comment when you ask people for one. It is best when it is immediate, given freely and on occassion fearlessly. The emphasis on this first creates an understanding of changes in behavior, in the education of people as it deepens knowledge in organizations. My experience has taught me that mission statements (i.e. uprooting poverty, ending conflict, improving health), should be avoided until a the power of evaluation is firm and established. These pools use feedback systems as basic as students working individually, who then pool ideas in small groups. Structure from a variety of institutional evaluation program sources is available for use and essential to the discovery and implementation of common standards.
In the three mission statement examples above we can see the importance of these attainment measures. Uprooting poverty became a central component of the Civil Rights Movement and along with the idea of ending sexual/racial conflict the rise of Me Too and Black Lives Matter are building institutional coalitions for transformative change. Finally, the idea of improving the health of Americans due to a pandemic put a spotlight on the reluctance (perhaps denial) to examine structural inequality, social and economic conflict, and the health of people as one and the same.
One and the Same
Successful change agents work with people where they are found. The idea of “where” is locational as in a physical place with a view of something. A more complicated element is how the view includes the desire for outcomes defined by measures of outlook. Without the skills to work the language of outcomes, outputs, inputs, feedback, and some solid interpersonal communication instincts, it is very difficult to develop “one and the same” into something vital.
It is, therefore, best to have some language to describe yourself, your community, and what you want to do to it or have it do to you because if you do not have these insights, this is the point when change becomes regressive. There are a lot of neat ways to keep from going backward. I like digging into change models, but it is equally important to look internally in a know thyself to know others’ kind of way. There is a “thyself” one you can use for just $50.00, or less in bulk if you are already in a never doubt group. Buying your own Myers-Briggs report allows you to acquire a four-letter MBIT type as listed below. You can explore that idea further (here).
- Inspector – ISTJ
- Counselor – INFJ
- Mastermind – INTJ
- Giver – ENFJ
- Provider – ESFJ
- Idealist – INFP
- Supervisor – ESTJ
- Visionary – ENTP
Agreeing to the proposition that you can be one of the personalities listed, includes combinations that are possible internally because people do change and we do have differences. Knowing an MBIT type in the establishment of goal-oriented relationships in the organizational setting is a useful “be open” experience. Being in an environment that sees change as an act that recognizes growth, personal advancement, new skills, and so on is useful, especially among the never doubters. As the mosaic below illustrates, the web and tons of print publications are replete with the fun of using personality types as communication and organizing tool.
If an activity is plausible or even feasible it can lead to an impact. Knowing the content of that impact comes from your ability to test and confirm actions in short-term, micro-focused cycles. Once in motion, these facts create the long term result known as a system change. The two search engine mosaics above illustrates, a grand range of templates available for guidance, the only missing element is called the first step.
The selection of interventions that take you from the beginning to the middle and the end are changes that should be joyful and hopeful. Understand the knowledge in people and then in their organizations establishes the plausibility of a framework for creating change. Like a good film, there are many connections between the early efforts to begin a story and to start on a path toward something, to get near the end, to sense a climax and a possible denouement, but just like the movies, there is no big “The End” anymore.
The Albemarle Report 